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11/7/09

......the large chunk of US citizens that are stupid enough to believe the very expensive oil company propaganda campaigns, only worry about what Al Gore makes on the side and are actually moronic enough to doubt climate change. AFP sez:

The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found 57 percent of Americans see "solid evidence of warming," compared to 71 percent in April 2008, and 77 percent in August 2007.

Meanwhile, here's a photo or two from what the sane amongst us call "reality".

This is the Chacaltaya glacier in Bolivia. Its waters are vital (no other word suffices) for the continued wellbeing of the people living around it. But maybe that should now read "were vital". Abiding in Bolivia, reference source on the country par excellence, has the details, the links, the works.

11/6/09

Well hoodathunkit? It turns out that your humble scribe isn't the only person that GATA dumbass and über-underwater ECU Silver shareholder Wistar Holt tries to bully around with his foul mouth and threatening behaviour. From Kitco's Nadler today:

"A certain Mr. Wistar Holt (he, a key member of an organization that promulgates the theory that the old market is rigged/suppresses/manipulated/etc.) sent this writer an overtly threatening e-mail (you know, like the Sicilian message about Mr. Luca Brasi sleeping with the fishes) and advised this writer to 'watch his back' when next out in public. Now that this is out in the open, maybe you can all help me watch my back, and Ian's too, and anyone else's who dares to use his right of free speech, or that of putting forth an opinion to challenge the propaganda of the histrionic, the illogical, the uniformed, and the unhinged bullion bullies."

Semi OT: Don't forget, folks; If the scam silver stock ECU.to doesn't crack a share price of $3.00 by December 31st 2009, HRH Bill Murphy of GATA is offering his half price subscription special for 2010. Here's the evidence, in the hand of the great gold god himself.

This is sick, and even if you can't appreciate the slicksmart lyrics the rhythm of this remix version will getcha.

Calle 13 cleaned up at the Grammy Latino awards last night, picking up the five main prizes. Check out this remixed version of one of the massive hits of 2009 down this way and find out why.

Also total respect to singer 'Residente', as the first thing he said when picking up the big prize last night was to ask the audience for a round of applause in honour of Mercedes Sosa. The dude knows his history, and he will know where he comin' from. Great to see.

I vote Telefonica the worst internet service provider in South America. Any objections?

Dynasty (DMM.to) up 2.4% at $5.58. This is also good. I have a bet on with a sometime drinking partner who says that DMM finishes at $5.72 or above today. I took the bet cos that way I can't lose. Four beers on the wager. Bottoms up!

Rusoro (RML.v) up 3.4% at $0.61 and get past this number and the stock might...just might...be off to the races. Volumes ok but not great

Crown Point Ventures (CWV.v) up 5.8% at $0.91 and yesterday's press release got less traction than I imagined it would. Well three turned out to be gassy, but the natgas has a market in Argentina and neighbouring companies get to sell it profitably due to the locals' 'Gas Plus' program (check that link above to know more). The new drill program is happening and the plots have already proved themselves super-prospective, so nothing to dislike so far. Holding thru, as risk/reward seems very much in favour here. Small position.

Vena Resources (VEM.to) down a penny at $0.34 but very smart volume shown yesterday...holy wow, who's buying? Who but who could it be? Vena is still my idea of a great value play going forward, all the patience it requires.

AuEx Ventures (XAU.to) up 4.9% at $3.20 and beating out its Long Canyon partner, FRG (down 2.6% at U$4.06) again. FRG has been trading soft for about two weeks now...hmmmm.

Reports are now coming through of tall, overweight, white-skinned people trying to sneak across the border and into Tijuana in an attempt to find gainful employment. Locals were later spotted showing them how lawnmowers work.

There's Valentine's Day, of course. Round your way you surely must have a Mother's Day and a Father's Day. You might even have Friend's Day, too. However in Argentina they have "Bank Worker's Day" on November 6th every year and due to that all banks and even the BCBA Stock Market are closed today.

Before you ask, I have no freakin' idea why. Can't help you, sorry. It's Argentina, y'see. Even more sadly, ask an Argentine and they won't have a freakin' clue, either.

In IKN28 out Sunday afternoon, as well as the regular shenanigans and fun we get to feature not one but two new recommendations. What's more they're both gold miner plays in LatAm.

One is a producer (and I've already tipped off subscribers which one it is in a Flash note yesterday morning) and the other is a small explorer that, although a tiny pennyshot and far more risky by nature, could really be on to something right now. This will be the first time I get to add two new names on the 'Stocks to Follow' list in single week (I think) and will bring us back up close to our maximum of 15 names at any one time. And by the way, as always I don't own either of the new names yet and will wait for at least two days before buying...so my window on these things gets opened next Wednesday.

This blatant plug for the paid sub service is now drawing to a close, so if you fancy risking $25 and trying it for one month the button is over there on the right of the blog. Thank you for your attention. As for those stock recos, all will be revealed on Sunday afternoon. A roll on the drums, please..........

And yes, before you mail or comment I know that nobody gives a rat's derriere about things like so-called fundamentals any more. And yeah, sure, there's no hedgefund speculation in copper either. And while we're at it, that crap about Santa not existing? You no do no listenerations, please. Here's the longline context:

Sad news from Argentina today. Felix Luna, historian, author, ex-minister of culture, decorated and recognized citizen in the four corners of the world and, most importantly, a kind witty intelligent and excellent person died this morning, aged 84.

Dynasty Metals up 10.4% at $5.40. This is good. Meanwhile, here's a special chart for all those peppering me with BS pumps about CTQ.to:Yeah yeah, dudes, whatever you say. How's that "imminent sale" to Tongling from this time last year going, anyhow?

Fortuna Silver (FVI.v) down 2 spots at $1.69. Our fave small silver keeps banging its head against the 1.7 line and falling back. That's ok, we're not here for the short haul. Target much higher than today's levels and we're expecting very good things for the 3q09 earnings report due out soon.

Constitution Mining (CMIN.ob) down 6.5% at $1.15. With gold at record highs, I'm forced into the only possible reaction of wetting myself laughing. Find out more about this scam right here.

TheNewCrystallex (EC.v) up 9.4% at $0.58. Mining stocks for small boys that think superduper secret inside intel beats out betting money on crooks.

Chariot Resources (CHD.to) up 9.7% at $0.34, moving on the back of this kinda-good-news-but-pumpy-promo press release before the bell this morning. As mentioned to subbers in a Flash update I tried to get in at $0.32 early doors. I failed to get the price but not chasing the stock from here. If they give me a value entry, I'll take it. If not, no. CHD has cried wolf too many times to be fully trustworthy.

Amarillo Gold (AGC.v) down 5.1% at $0.93 and AuEx Ventures (XAU.to) down a penny at $3.19...although I get the general drift, I'll never really understand why people are so fixated with BS pump jobs and ignore good mining companies doing serious exploratory work. The MTV attention span generation, perhaps? Discuss.

I get so much feedback and megasmart mails from you guys out there these days that it's hard to keep up. I just want to say an official "thank you" and also please keep sending them in. I try to answer them all, pretty promise, but sometimes a few that need answering do get missed. My excuse is forgetfulness, not ignorance.

As an example of the stuff I get, check out this mail today from regular reader 'MP', then see underneath the relevant excerpt from the news release he sent in (his bold type). Enjoy.

Title:Great Name!

Body:Isn't that just a great name for an ore/mineralization zone? This is a legit company, but if some of the Vancouver scammers had even an ounce of honesty, we would hear this name used more often on some of their projects...

BOGOTA – A dozen municipal council members have been killed so far this year in Colombia and more than 2,000 others have received threats from guerrillas and other illegal armed groups, officials said on Tuesday.

“Two councilors are kidnapped, attacks have been made against some 32 councilors and more than 2,000 councilors today have security measures known by the national government,” Colombian Federation of Councilors spokesman Fabio Estrada told Caracol Radio.

Colombia’s municipal council members must also deal with “a situation of neglect that affects their security,” Estrada said.

Over the weekend, a member of the city council in Villavicencio, the capital of Meta province, was killed during CONTINUES HERE

Here's one of about ten thousand reports on the connections between Uribe's gov't and far right wing death squads:

BOGOTA - Colombian prosecutors have decided to open an investigation into the alleged ties between Vice President Francisco Santos and right-wing militiasCONTINUES HERE

And especially for you guys that think Norte de Santander (GSL, VEN, plenty others) have no problems...

Irregular armed groups from Colombia have been active for years in Táchira, an Andean highlands state that borders the northeastern Colombian department of Norte de Santander.

DYODD dude, and while you're at it why not ask your financial advisor about the conspiracy of silence amongst mining analysts about the total lack of talk on political risk in Colombia?

Check out this photo from the beach at Colán, northern Peru yesterday.

Around 200 dead sea lions appeared on the beach, their bodies decomposing, and the cause is apparently fishermen in the region that poisoned the animals out at sea to make sure they didn't interfere with their catch.

Get yourself over to Mickey Fulp's website the mercenary geologist, sign on for his totally free membership (he's mad) and then download your copy of his analysis on Avalon Metals (AVL.to) that he made available to his membership list late last night. In the 14 page report Fulp does a top job in explaining why there are REE companies and there are REE companies.

Plexmar (PLE.v) down 7.1% at $0.13 and happily this dogfaced scammy thing isn't getting any sort of a bump from the positive news out of Ecuador. Currently twelve cents more than I'd ever pay for it. Horrible.

Girly Stock (GRL.v) down 4% at $1.20. There may or may not be news after the bell on this thing. You never know.

Rusoro (RML.v) down 3.3% at $0.58 and hasn't managed to punch thru the 60c barrier, but the volumes (thanks to a 3m GMP cross and 'find the lady' games at the can of corn) are strong at 5.6m and counting. Wouldn't it be fun if article two exemption were announced by Hugo this weekend...

Dynasty (DMM.to) up 15.1% at $4.95. Going higher, too. Cormark busy pumping the price all in a kind of fit'n'start operation. I wonder if we get any flash urgent looky-look coverage from them mañana? I wonder if the Pope is Catholic? I wonder if it's true about bears defecating in arboreal regions?

ADDENDUM: Linear Gold (LRR.to) has just decided to run an equity financing. Probably a good time to do it, as when Kinross hands back the Mexico properties things won't be so positive, correct Wade?

Inquiring minds have been asking me about the signing of the new mining law in Ecuador that is supposed to happen today. Allow me to explain.

It's confirmed that President Studmuffin will sign the law into effect today.

It is happening at 3pm Ecuador time today.

Not only that, Correa has chosen to do the signing ceremony in the town of Zaruma, Portovelo. This happens to be the exact same place that Dynasty Metals (DMM.to) operates.

So if you think that the 10% move in DMM these last two days has been kinda neat.....

.... just wait for the upside when the can of corn and cormark get their hype machines into action as from mañana. Above info taken from decent sources.

mojitos served. the end

PS: Dear agoracom EC.v dumbasses, please feel free to do what you always do and steal the post or the info and pretend you're the source of all wisdom on Ecuador without providing a link to source. And oh look! DMM is up 23c since this got posted...there's a thing. Ever thought about offering Spanish lessons to analysts at RBC, boys?

Two polls just out in Ecuador have Studmuffin's approval rating really widely spread. Here's the graph to make it easy....

.....and that's a big difference. The strange thing about it is that the two polling companies are just about the most repuatable in the country, too. Cedatos is part of the world of Gallup so has to play by the book. On the other hand Santiago Perez Inv Y Est (SP) has been called pro-gov't in previous years (by the dumbasses at El Universo, mainly) but also has the reputation as the closest pollster to reality in major elections and has the top job of producing exit polls on the big days...not a task for the flybynighters.

Well, amazingly enough I had another batch of mailers writing in from Vancouver (of all places??? hoodathunkit???) going "hahahaha, Constitution Mining is up" and saying silly things like "buy the dips" as it rose yesterday. Buy the total collapse more like, but hey...who be I to tell the scam runners and bucketshops their jobs.

I honest don't give a damn about the scumballs that hang around plays like this, but I'd like to save maybe one or two people from actually believing their hyped up bullshit, so here's a bit of background about CMIN.ob and a couple of other companies that have concessions of the river Marañon in exactly the same place as CMIN.ob. This time i haven't linked up to the relevent SEC filings, but it's all there in the open air, so go look for yourself. And by the way, if you don't know how to search on the SEC website, you have no reason even to be looking at OB companies as possible investments. Learn about these things and save yourself some hard lesson later.

Enough preamble, let's play "spot the coincidence" but one more thing before we go on. A typical scamster ploy is to register a company name that's very similar to an established and reputable name. In this case, as far as I can make out "Temasek Investments Inc" of Panama has no connection to the very large and reputable "Temasek Holdings" investment fund company that is based in Asia.

Constitution Mining (CMIN.ob) is a gold exploration company that owns an option to buy in to a stretch of the river Marañon in northern Peru. It wants to dredge the sands under the river to recover the small quantities of gold that are found there. It optioned the property from Temasek Investments Inc in late 2008, a Panama based company that has a personal assistant in a law firm (Gray & Co, prop. Beth Anne Gray) as its president, a certain Marisela Simmons (Panamanian national,ID card number 8-794-2332 and whose qualifications run as far as a degree in tourism administration).

The option deal is to pay for the first 25% of the so-called gold sands property, then make payments for the second, the third and then the fourth 25% of the property in stages. CMIN.ob has revised the terms of the deal and made the second payment, but needs to find another $3m by March 31 (and 2m shares...that's easier) to make it to stage three. It now has very little cash left for any sort of exploration work, one quarter's worth of normal burn rate cash at bank, no assets, but somehow runs a market cap of $78m or so at present. Here's the chart for CMIN.ob:

Riverrun Resources (RRRO.pk) is a gold exploration company that owns an option to buy in to a stretch of the river Marañon in northern Peru. It wants to dredge the sands under the river to recover the small quantities of gold that are found there. It optioned the property from Temasek Investments Inc in late 2008, a Panama based company that has a personal assistant in a law firm (Gray & Co, prop. Beth Anne Gray) as its president, a certain Marisela Simmons (Panamanian national, ID card number 8-794-2332 and whose qualifications run as far as a degree in tourism administration).

The option deal is to pay for the first 25% of the so-called gold sands property, then make payments for the second, the third and then the fourth 25% of the property in stages. The chairman of RRRO.pk is Pat Gorman, who also sits on the board of CMIN.ob. It hasn't made the payments on time as yet. Here's the chart for RRRO.pk:

Amazon Gold Sands (AZNG.ob) is a gold exploration company that owns an option to buy in to a stretch of the river Marañon in northern Peru. It wants to dredge the sands under the river to recover the small quantities of gold that are found there. It optioned the property from Temasek Investments Inc in late 2008, a Panama based company that has a personal assistant in a law firm (Gray & Co, prop. Beth Anne Gray) as its president, a certain Marisela Simmons (Panamanian national, ID card number 8-794-2332 and whose qualifications run as far as a degree in tourism administration).

The option deal is to pay for the first 25% of the so-called gold sands property, then make payments for the second, the third and then the fourth 25% of the property in stages. AZNG.ob shares several board members with CMIN.ob., including its CEO, Hector Ponte, who sits on the CMIN advisory board. and the CFO of CMIN who also does the books at AZNG. This company hasn't made the options payments on time as yet, either. Here's the chart for AZNG.ob:

AZNG.ob actually traded above $20 a year or so before that chart starts...I'm trying to be nice here.

11/3/09

What with today's big upmove in gold (GLD up 2.4%) that was even bigger in the world's big gold mining companies (NEM up 6.7%, AEM up 7.5%, ABX up 7.3%, GFI up 9.3%, GG up 8%, KGC down 1.3%...cos its quarter way sucked), I began to wonder just how much the big gold miners had beaten out their product, gold, in the last few months.

click to enlarge

The answer is: By nothing. Surprisingly, gold the metal (here noted by the ETF proxy, GLD) has performed better than all the abovementioned gold miners in the quarter to date, either by a little (GFI nearly got there today) or a lot (a full 23% breach between GLD and Kinross).

The latest and bestest theory about the sudden gold pop is that some or other central bank decided that it needed to cover the 200MT hole that the IMF sale to India has caused...or summink like dat. WTFDIK anyway, dude?

Riverside Resources (RRI.v) down 2% at $0.48 and I added some this morning. I like. You should too. We have until December to place bets before the drill results come back from the Az gig.

Dynasty Metals (DMM.to) up 5.5% at $4.25 and the news just out that the $6m financing has completed right on time and fully loaded cannot be a bad thing. I noted the can of corn buying DMM in the minutes just before the NR hit....pure coincidence of course.

A quick gallop and gambol round 'the small silvers', with Fortuna (FVI.v) up 9% at $1.70, Great Panther (GPR.to) up 2.8% at $0.73, First Majestic (FR.to) up 4.8% at $3.29, Endeavour (EDR.to) up 7.1% at $3.28, Impact Silver (IPT.v) up 6.3% at $0.85 and US Silver (USA.v) up 3.1% at $0.17. I remind viewers that ECU Silver is, by its own admission, not a silver producer and does not make the list. They view their company as an explorer...I view it as a total PoS scam and its paid pumpers in the same way...that means you, Adrian, Bill and Wistar.

Duran Ventures (DRV.v) down 3.2% at $0.15. This one was on my radar for a while until last year's meltdown happened, then I kinda lost track of what it was up to. Word is that the new mgmt team in place are sprucing things up and getting things moving.....tough to get worse that the permajunior attitude that was in place previously. The Peru rocks look quite promising and although money is tight, DRV should have enough to get to first base if the results are promising. This has moved up 50% or so in the last few weeks (still a pennycrapper, mind you) and is now back on my radar. Not a buyer yet.

The first 18 to 20 minutes or so are generalized stuff, which although good may be of less interest to mineheads. People who want to know about how mining in Ecuador is seen as developing by the guy that actually runs the shop should move to 18 minutes onwards....and then listen to the guy blow your lefty-anti-biz prejudices out of the water. Essential listening matter for anyone with the vaguest interest in Ecuador mining world.

For what it's worth, I sent the link to the radio interview to subscibers before the bell this morning as one part of a Flash update. Here's some feedback from subscriber DL:

Thanks for the Correa BBC interview. He's no dummy. I have always liked the guy's smart like a fox ways and what he is trying to do. Guys like him are an important step to establishing lasting change that should take root this time as it's happening at a time when the U.S. is preoccupied to say the least. However If there's one thing SA is good for it's change. Two steps forward one step back. I really think this century will in many ways belong to SA and not just Asia.

Well said, DL. Here's the link again, just in case. Go listen, and hear in English what we've been listening to in Spanish for neverending months...perhaps you guys up there will start believing now?

Here's the chart:The latest from Hugolandia's finance scene is the Central Bank's honcho Merentes, who says that the country is committed to a stronger parallel exchange rate and is aiming for that previously announced 60% breach between the official Bolivar Fuerte (VEF) forex of 2.15 against the dollar and the permuta rate (which would mean it exchanges at 3.40 or so against the USD, not the current 5.30 to 5.50).

This is, of course, bullshit pie-in-the-sky and he knows it (if he doesn't WTF is he doing as head of a Central Bank?), so his speechifying can only be put down to either jawboning or LSD tablets. Just check the number of VEFs in circulation right now, compare it against currency reserves, do the math we've done here on many occasions previously and you'll see that a parallel rate under 4.5 is about as likely as Eva Golinger admitting she was wrong about Michael Moore.

The VEF got to 5 recently on the back of a very popular bond emission and then a slightly-less-popular-but-still-worked-fine bond emission. The fate of the VEF parallel rate is tied directly to the number of dollars in the country compared to the number of VEF...it really is that simple in the long run. Jawboning about super secret cunning plans to come is all well and good, but it won't ever move the market permanently. So here's what you have to remember:

Get ready to feel all soft and gooey, mineheads, cos the head honchos at Troy Resources (TRY.to) (TRY.ax) have decided that the best part of breakin' up is when you're makin' up. According to the press release from last night (see below) the Extraordinary General Meeting called by lover John to oust lover Benson from his CEO's job has been called off.

So the good news is that the pissing contests are done with, the idiot egowars are now all over and the people running TRY can get back to concentrating on what they should have been doing these last few weeks, namely building and running a gold mine or two. Gotta love them Aussies.

Troy Resources NL: Withdrawal of Request for EGM

04:48 EST Tuesday, November 03, 2009

PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA--(Marketwire - Nov. 3, 2009) -

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

Growing junior gold producer, Troy Resources NL (TSX:TRY)(ASX:TRY), is pleased to advise shareholders that a requisition for an Extraordinary General Meeting planned for 16 November 2009 has been withdrawn.

This follows the conclusion of discussions with Warrigal Pty Ltd, a company associated with Mr John Jones, a Non-Executive Director of the Company. As a consequence, the EGM has now been cancelled.

As a result of those discussions, a number of changes will be made to the Board of Directors at the Annual General Meeting of shareholders set down for 27 November 2009.

Mr Alan Naylor, the founder of Troy, has advised the Company that he will not seek re-election at the AGM and will retire from the Board after 25 years' service as a Director.

Dr Denis Clarke, who has been a Director of Troy for 10 years, has advised the Board that to facilitate the agreement with Warrigal he will resign as a director and leave the board at the AGM.

On behalf of all shareholders, the Board acknowledges and thanks Mr Naylor and Dr Clarke for their outstanding contributions to the Company over an extended period.

Mr Robin Parish, a 5% beneficial shareholder in Troy, will be appointed to the Board immediately and Mr Paul Benson will step down as a Director but will remain as the Company's Chief Executive Officer.

In addition, Mr Jones has confirmed that he will support the re-election of Troy Chairman, Mr John Dow, as a Director at the upcoming AGM.

Commenting on these changes, Mr Dow said he welcomed the resolution of the issues raised by Warrigal.

"The successful resolution of these issues is a win for the future of Troy.

"All parties are committed to a strategy which delivers the best outcome for all Troy shareholders.

"Having recently secured a fully underwritten entitlement issue to raise A$24.9M, the Company can focus its efforts on developing the Casposo gold-silver project in San Juan province, Argentina.

"Importantly, the timeline for the development of Casposo remains on track for first production in the September quarter 2010," Mr Dow said.

Mr Jones reiterated the comments of Mr Dow. "This is a great outcome for Troy and all its shareholders," he said.

Catching up with a regular here, the GSR has moved away from the 60X level as fear FEAR FEAR grips the financial world. Those who follow the Gospel According to Vix say that its flashing the same kind of signals.

11/2/09

To make up for the lack of Friday OT last week and to celebrate the magnificent performance of Dick Cheney and his 72 unfortunate lapses of memory when the Feds asked him about the Plame affair, here's Peter Gabriel in one of those 80s arty videos we all lurved at the time.

So remember on Thursday when the macro situation was great and the markets shot up? Then on Friday when the macro situation was awful and the markets slumped down? Then this morning when the macro situation was great and the markets shot up? Then about an hour ago when everyone suddenly decided that the macro situation isn't that great after all?

Makes perfect sense, doesn't it?

AuEx Ventures (XAU.to) up 3.7% at $3.06 and the 447k Dundee cross at the bell this morning has set the tone for the day. The kind of 'serious junior' that doesn't try to wow the market with BS, but wows it with facts instead. Likeable.

TheNewCrystallex (EC.v) up 14.3% at $0.56 but not fooling so many people today with its scammy trading patterns, as only 120k papers are through the doors so far. No production in Brazil, a judicial inquiry on its corruption allegations causing a 6 month freeze on all activity, no permits to do anything in Ecuador and the sheep still think this PoS is worth more than pennies. Gotta laugh.

Nadagold (NG) down 1.4% at $4.24. Half that price and it's still expensive. Woof.

Constitution Mining (CMIN.ob) down 24.4% at $0.90. It always amazes me how anyone with more than two neurons to rub together that checks out reg filings can see how scamjobs like this are bound to fall, then says so, then gets rubbished by the knownothing sheep, then waits patiently, then sees the drop, then gets to read comments from sheep like "golly gee wow, it's a scam after all".

ATW Gold (ATW.v) up a penny at 22c. I was checking out the August quarterly filings this morning, published over the weekend. Jeesh what a financial trainwreck! Only a charlatan paid pumper or someone that has no idea how to read a balance sheet could have ever reco'd this to the public. Totally utterly completely OT, what's Bob Moriarty recommending as a buy these days?

When an overpriced, overpumped, start-up alluvial sands gold mining scam in Latin America with directors from equally scammy junior mining companies in charge of operations and without enough money to make payments on the options for its already dubious asset sees its share price drop like a stone for no particular reason on big early morning volumes, there is reason to believe that the company is not in a good position going forward and should be avoided as a potential investment.

Did you get all that? I hope you were paying attention, cos there's a quiz at the end of the week.

'Carlin' is about the best political cartoonist in Peru and has his corner of the world at national daily, 'La Republica'. Here's today's offering, translated into English and then in its original Spanish. Enjoy.

For some reason, this copper project is on the list of those that the government of Peru expects to be operational by 2015. Just goes to show how much BS is thrown at the market by politicos.

Saldy, after the deaths and torture suffered by locals protesting the mining project of Rio Blanco (ex-Majaz) that came to light earlier this year in a series of photos, we have more deaths to report. And unsurprisingly, after the total inaction of authorities over the case it's the locals that have taken the law into their own hands and done the deeds.

According to reports starting to appear, it seems that some 20 local people approached the mining camp at Rio Blanco last night armed with molotov cocktails and torched the campsite. Two people working at the site, namely Joel Severino Zapata of the security firm Visur and Luis Gómez Vilchez, an employee of the mining company, were killed. Reports on how they died are contradictory at this moment, with some claiming both weren't able to get out of the buildings in time and others claiming that one was accidentally shot to death by one of his own colleagues while trying to defend the area

Previously, the owners of this project were Monterrico Metals. It's now owned by China's Zijin, but the nameplate on the door means absolutely nothing. At some point the Chinese will begin to udnerstand what a foolish idea it was to buy this trainwreck and sell it to some other bunch of suckers. If you know the area you'll also know that it's impossible to get anything done without the assistance of the local people. The same local people that have made it crystal clear how much they don't want the project to move ahead on their land. The behind-the-back dealing of the Twobreakfasts government have again tried to ignore the desires of the people of Peru. Once again those people have lost patience. It's all so sad, so predictable. Furthermore, it's likely to happen in the same way at the Hunt Oil project in the South of Peru soon, too.

Just in case you ever forget what mining is about, here's Reuters today:

TORONTO (Reuters) - Metanor Resources Inc (MTO.V) has suspended operations at its Bachelor Lake gold mine in the Canadian province of Quebec after an accident that left three miners missing.

The company said in a statement late on Saturday that it lost contact with two of its employees and an employee of contractor Montali after they were working late on Friday in a part of the mine that flooded.

Mining rescue and medical teams were dispatched while Metanor staff pumped water from the flooded portion of the mine. (Reporting by Jeffrey Hodgson; Editing by Michael Urquhart)

Here we go with another in our occasional series of looking at the gobbledygook written by junior miners in their news releases and translating it into real English. Today's episode comes from Greystar Resources (GSL.to), the company that firstfooted the Santander Norte zone of Colombia and has made snail's pace development at its Angostura project (deep in the heart of a paramilico drug running zone...but don't let that bother you....cos it doesn't bother the BS pump analysts from the Canuck houses...so why should it bother you...right?). Anyway, I digress. Let's get on with the show.

This is what they wrote:

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Nov. 2, 2009) - Greystar Resources Ltd. (TSX:GSL - News; AIM:GSL) (the "Company") announced that the Company will initiate a program of metallurgical testing aimed at investigating the application of agitation leach and/or pre-oxidation as processing methods for intermediate sulphide ore at its 100% owned Angostura gold-silver deposit. Initial testing from both processing methods have shown promising results and further testing is warranted. In the Preliminary Feasibility Study published in May 2009, the intermediate sulphide ore (representing approximately 17% of the recovered gold in the mine plan) was designed to be heap leached which resulted in low recoveries of precious metals. Recent column testing using the intermediate sulphide ore to simulate heap leach conditions have returned recoveries that question the economic viability of only using heap leaching on this ore type. It is important to point out that column testing to simulate heap leach conditions on oxide and transitional ores continue to show very positive results. In addition, flotation testing for treatment of the higher grade sulphide ore to produce a gold bearing concentrate also continues to show excellent results. Given the improvement in the long term outlook for gold, the Company believes that the intermediate sulphide ore may be able to support a more robust processing method which may lead to higher economic returns for this ore type. The agitation leach and pre-oxidation testing programs will take approximately six months to complete, as such the Bankable Feasibility Study is now expected to be completed in the second half of 2010. The Company will continue with the design of the heap leach facilities for treating oxide and transitional ore as well as the grinding and flotation circuit for the higher grade sulphide ore.

David Rovig, President & CEO commented, "Our Preliminary Feasibility Study was based upon $700 per ounce of gold during the first three years of operation and $650 per ounce of gold for the remaining twelve years. These gold prices limited our options for processing of the intermediate sulphide ore at Angostura which contains approximately 2 million ounces of gold. In the current gold environment, both agitated leach and pre - oxidation offer to increase recoveries and improve the economics of this ore type and the project as a whole. If either process is adopted, design modifications such as the inclusion of a tailings impoundment would need to be incorporated in the Bankable Feasibility Study. While this testing will delay the project, the Company will continue to move forward with all other aspects of the project including geotechnical evaluations, social and environmental studies, permitting, infrastructure construction and project finance."

And this is what it means:

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Nov. 2, 2009) - Greystar Resources Ltd. (TSX:GSL - News; AIM:GSL) (the "Company") announced that after all this time the Company still doesn't have a freaking clue about how it can get the gold out of this damn stupid sulphide rock, but now that gold is above $1,000/oz we have the chance to throw a couple of hundred extra dollars worth of reagents at the stuff and see if it works.

The project is now going to go through even more delays and the Company has spent the last year kicking ourselves that it didn't claim that valley just to the South of its big land package where Ventana Gold has been kicking serious ass. Mojitos served, the end.

11/1/09

A little later than usual this week, but IKN27 has just winged its way to subscribers. Any delivery hiccups, just say the word folks (though we're four weeks and counting with no probs). It's now 8:49pm and I'm off to have a rum & coke with a beautiful woman. Enjoy your evening, too.

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